Sometime this year it is expected that President Obama will decide whether or not to approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Construction of the pipeline is a complex endeavor that raises economic, environmental and national security questions. This article will address these concerns associated with the new pipelines approval. The existing Keystone Pipeline, with a capacity of 590,000 barrels of oil per day, is 2,870 miles long. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline that starts in Hardisty, Canada will be about 1,180 miles long and will be buried at least four feet underground. The pipeline will carry an additional 830,000 barrels per day from both the tar sands of Canada and the Bakken shale-oil fields of the Dakotas and Montana to refineries in the southern US.

The economic impact of construction and operation of the pipeline is minimal. Construction is expected to take two years and generate about 10,000 jobs, but once in operation, the pipeline will maintain only 35-50 jobs. The national security issue is also important, as the pipeline would decrease the USA's dependence on OPEC. Canada, our most dependable trade partner, would be a favorable alternative to the Middle East.

Environmental factors are perhaps the most significant issue related to approval of the pipeline. It is clear that, whatever Obama's decision, oil will be extracted by Canada from the tar sand and transported either via pipeline to refineries in Texas, or via railroad to the Irving Oil Refinery in New Brunswick, Canada. The environmental cost of extraction is therefore irrelevant as an argument against the pipeline. We believe the environmental discussion should focus on the impact of the alternative transportation method (rail cars) if the pipeline is not built. Using trains to transport the oil to New Brunswick would have two environmental consequences; the impact of diesel fuel burned by the train engines, and the likelihood of oil spills.

How many trains would be required to transport the Keystone XL pipeline's 830,000 barrels of oil per day? Assuming there are 100 oil tanker cars per train and a capacity of 714 barrels, each train can transport 71,400 barrels of oil per day. Each day this will require about 12 trains with 100 oil tankers pulled by at least two engines. The distance from the Canadian tar-sands to New Brunswick is 2900 miles, and each train engine gets only 0.15 miles to the gallon. This amounts to 470,000 gallons of diesel fuel per day based on two engines, but this is a lower limit estimate because many trains use four or five engines. Each year, transportation of oil by rail would release 4,780 metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere, equivalent to 342,000 cars per year, for one-way trips only.

Another issue with rail transport is the potential for derailments leading to spills. We are not aware of any oil spills from the existing Keystone pipeline, and it is safe to assume that the new pipeline will be built to the same safety standards. By contrast there have been numerous significant oil spills from trains transporting oil across the Northern US and Southern Canada. 2013 witnessed the largest amount of crude oil spilled in the US since 1975, more than 1.15 million gallons. A spill on December 30th near Casselton, North Dakota is still under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board; they estimate that at least 400,000 gallons of crude oil were spilled in a derailment. The spill forced 2,400 people to evacuate their homes in subzero temperatures. A spill of 1.5 million gallons of crude oil in Lac-Megantic, Quebec in July, resulted in a fire that killed 47 people. It is apparent that the environmental impact of the pipeline is significantly less than that of rail transport in terms of both carbon footprint and unintended release of oil.

A final underlying implication of the pipeline will be its role in subverting the country's shift from fossil fuels to sustainable energy, as the Bakken region may remain productive for as many as 50 years. In order to address this concern we suggest that a fee be levied on each barrel of oil pumped by the pipeline. A barrel of oil currently sells for about $100. A $5 fee, applied to each barrel, would only marginally increase the price of gasoline, but would generate $1.5 billion each year. This revenue should then be used to fund the development and installation of renewable energy sources, such as solar energy, or the implementation of conservation practices.